Seedlings
by skykitty of the night
Summary: All that Solidad the shinx wanted was to be able to live in peace. But when you're an outlaw being hunted by an evil king, and are surrounded by an insane rescue team, chances are you won't have much time for peace. Not to mention safety.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello all. I'm sorry for not updating See the Light in months, and I don't think I ever will. I sort of lost inspiration for the story, partly because I started thinking about another favorite subject of mine: pokemon! I hope that all of you enjoy the first chapter of Seedlings!

xXxXxXx

If the tax collectors could see the motley crew trooping through the forest coming to get them, they would beg for mercy. The elite team of pokemon were deadly, resourceful, and worst of all: efficient.

"Py, will you please tell me why we're working on our day off?" an oshawott whined.

"Are you seriously okay with rouge tax collectors stealing a priceless necklace?" Py, a victini, asked.

"Well, no. It's just that we haven't been home in months, and we have to spend it working," the oshawott explained.

"Oh, I get it. Asher's mad that he doesn't get to see Winnie," a nearby totodile teased.

"Shut up, Jaws! It's not like that," Asher protested.

"Ignore him, Asher. Jaws is just jealous that he doesn't have a girlfriend," a zorua advised.

"Zero, not you too!" a female deerling chided, hiding her grin behind a hoof.

"For Arceus' sake, we talk about Asher's crush on Winnie at least once a week," a chikorita complained.

"Uh, who are we tracking anyway?" a cyndaquil asked quietly.

"Some idiots named Explosion, Plus, and Minus," Py replied.

"Arceus, what stupid names," a sandile criticized.

"Says the guy who calls himself Shades," Asher remarked.

An eevee who had scouting ahead ran back to the main group.

"Shh! Their campsite is right ahead, I can hear them talking and I can see the campfire," she reported.

The team of pokemon immediately transformed from goofy friends to disciplined troops.

"Okay, Shades, I want your only focus to be getting the plusle and minun. Jaws and Asher, I want you two guarding the river, not fighting.

The two water types groaned.

Ignoring them, Py continued. "I want Val on the electric types too," he said, nodding at the deerling. "The rest of us need to tackle Explosion; he's a salamence so we have our work cut out for us."

By now the trackers were behind a bush right next to the camp.

"Everybody ready?" Py checked. The group nodded in confirmation.

"Okay… now!" the victini commanded.

The team exploded out of the bushes, each member running towards their respective target.

The deerling and sandile charged Plus and Minus, mud shots and jump kicks flying everywhere.

The other attackers charged the salamence, who swung around to confront the threat.

"Wait! They have a hostage!" the eevee, Lua, noticed the shinx clutched in the dragon's claws.

"What hostage? You mean the shinx who was trying to steal our loot?" Explosion asked stupidly.

"Yeah, now's a good a time as ever to take it," the shinx chimed in, surprisingly not terrified.

"Would someone please explain-"the salamence was interrupted by the blue electric type.

"You might want to cover your eyes," the shinx advised the hunters.

"What? That doesn't help- MY EYES!" the salamence screamed, blinded by the light emitting from the shinx.

The shinx wiggled out of Explosion's grip, and scooped up a pouch laying near the campfire.

"You should hurry, it wears off pretty fast," the blue cat recommended.

The dragon let out a roar of anger, having recovered his sight.

"Well, good luck," the shinx said, running off towards the river.

"Uh, no. We were gonna miss the fight to guard the river; there's no way you're getting past us," Jaws announced.

The oshawott and totodile backed the shinx into a corner, engaged in a stand-off.

"How dare you blind me, Explosion, master off-"

"Shut up," Zero ordered, spitting a shadow ball in the monster's face.

"Ow! My minions! Plus and Minus, destroy them!" Explosion roared.

"Sorry boss," Minus said, from where he was tied up across the clearing.

"You defeated them that fast?" the blue dragon asked Py in disbelief.

"Yeah. You're next," he said, and promptly hit the salamence in the face with a searing shot.

The shinx's fur was crackling with electricity, Asher held up his scalchop threateningly, and Jaws bared his fangs.

The electric cat glanced over at the fight with the tax collectors, shocked to see that all three of them had been soundly defeated.

_Crap, I'm dealing with pros here,_ she thought.

The rest of the team was approaching as well, and her panic grew worse and worse. The nervous charge going through her body could rival a power plant.

"Y'know what guys, I've got this" Asher declared, striding towards the shinx, preparing to smack the weapon into her head.

With the shell only centimeters from her skull, she let out all the pent up electricity, positively frying the oshawott, who fell over, unconscious.

Everyone else had only been hit with only glancing blows, and Shades stood up and trapped the exhausted shinx with his teeth.

"He didn't have this," Shades commented, impervious to the continued slight electrical shocks the cat was still giving off.

The chikorita, May, was smart enough to use her vines to pry away the pouch the shinx had clutched in her mouth, and the shinx slumped over, defeated.

"Who are you?" Py questioned.

The shinx stared back at him blankly. "Your mom."

Py grimaced with annoyance, and the deerling took over, stepping to the front of the group.

"My name is Valentine, and we need your full cooperation. Who are you, and why were you stealing from thieves?" the pink deerling asked politely.

The blue cat looked at her calculatingly, and slowly nodded to herself.

"Okay, I'll tell you who I am. My name is Solidad, queen of outlaws," she announced with fake bravado.

The team looked at her in disbelief. This defeated scrap of fur was a hardened criminal?

"Well, we tried asking nicely. We'll take her to the base for questioning," Jaws suggested.

"No, we aren't allowed-"May began.

But it was too late. The totodile had already knocked the shinx out with a swift blow to the head, and had slung her over his shoulder.

"Great. What do we tell the board now?" May demanded.

Valentine, who had been placing the unconscious Asher on her back, glanced at Py to see his response. Gradually, the whole team turned to stare at their leader in askance. They had broken protocol, had a hostage that they didn't know what to do with, and a bunch of rouge tax collectors.

"We'll tell them that we had to take her in for questioning," the victini announced.

xXxXxXx

A/N: Comments are welcomed, and I hope you thought it was a bit interesting at least.

- Skykitty of the Night


	2. Chapter 2

V

The clean white bed was the first thing she noticed. The second thing she noticed was her splitting headache.

_Ow… That totodile really knew what he was doing. My head hasn't hurt this much since school. _

Solidad clambered out of the bed, taking in the small dirt room with a curtain in the middle.

_No windows. Am I a prisoner? I did tell them who I am, but it didn't seem like they believed me. Regardless, I'm underground. Is there anyone here?_

The shinx nosed past the white curtain, which when looked at more closely, was revealed to be a white sheet attached to the ceiling haphazardly with pins. Beyond the sheet was a cabinet and shelf filled with towels and jars of medicine, and a round opening with no door, which led to a deserted dirt hallway.

_Am I in a hospital? Where are the other patients?_

Solidad heard a cheerful voice floating down the hallway, "See you in a bit Seamus! I need to check on the shinx… No I can't just skip it!" she laughed.

_I remember when I was that carefree. Good times, playing tag and hide and go seek, laughing all the while. _

The blue cat was startled out of her musings by the entrance of a cherrim.

"Oh! You're awake!" the cherrim exclaimed.

"Uh, yeah."

The cherrim bustled about, stripping the bed of its old sheets.

"Y'know, this is the first day that I haven't had to change your bedpan," the grass type commented. Solidad turned red.

"I can't believe how long you were out, we were starting to get worried that Jaws had hit you too hard. It wouldn't be the first time," she muttered, half to herself.

"Wait, you mean the totodile's killed pokemon before?" Solidad asked, shocked.

"No, no. He hasn't killed anyone by hitting them, he's just put a couple of 'mons in a permanent coma," the cherrim assured her.

"That's so much better."

_I might be an outlaw but at least I haven't killed anyone._

The cherrim turned to face her, a huge grin on her face.

"I like you, you're funny! Your name is Solidad, right?" she asked, consulting a clipboard.

"Yes," the blue cat replied.

"Hmm… Solidad's too hard to say. I know, I'm gonna call you Sunny! 'Cuz of your shiny yellow eyes," the cherry blossom explained.

"Well, at least it's not because of my sunny outlook," Sunny murmured cynically.

The cherrim giggled merrily. "I'm Kara, by the way. Are you hungry? It's lunch now, and I was just about to go."

"Okay, and could you tell me where I am?" she asked.

"Oh, Arceus! I haven't told you yet?" Kara exclaimed. "You're in the resistance base."

"Who are you resisting?" Sunny asked, as they strolled down the earth hall.

Kara came to a halt and stared at her incredulously. "Are you kidding me?"

"I lived a, uh, sheltered life," Sunny explained.

"No kidding. We were formed to resist the king. The king of misery and hate, king of suffering and crying," Kara said darkly, her personality had done a flip-flop. Sunny gaped at the cherry blossom, astonished at the change in the little pokemon.

Kara shook her head and the smile returned to her face. "Sorry, I got a little gloomy there didn't I? The king just gets under my petals, and he makes so many pokemon unhappy. And I hate him for that," she said simply. The pair had reached the end of the long corridor.

"I hope that you'll join the resistance too. I mean, you don't have a place to go, and we would be glad to have you," she offered sweetly, indicating to a table in the middle of a cavernous room.

Sunny followed her pointing hand, realizing that the table was filled with the pokemon that had apprehended her.

_Judgment time._

"Thanks, Kara," Sunny said, turning. But the grass type was already gone, bouncing happily next to grinning breloom.

Sunny smiled, and walked towards the table, Kara's cheer giving her confidence. She stopped a few feet away.

"You're up!" the deerling, Valentine, observed.

"Great," the zorua groused.

The victini shot the dark fox a look. "Take a seat," he instructed Sunny.

The shinx sat down with a bump in between the deerling and victini.

"Has Kara informed you what you're going to be doing?" the victory pokemon inquired.

"No, she said that she hoped I would join the resistance. That's it."

The victini bit his lip. "It's not as simple as that. We need to make sure that you can be trusted enough not to spill the location of our base, or find out if you really are a dangerous criminal."

"Uh, you can trust me. Outlaw's honor. Do I need to sign something to leave?" Sunny asked.

The victini rubbed his forehead in frustration. "The thing is… You can't leave. You have to join a resistance team. Ours, specifically."

Zero, the zorua, grimaced. "I hate that now we're saddled with a useless piece of baggage on missions, all because Jaws couldn't control himself," he said, glaring at the totodile across from him.

"I'm not thrilled either," Jaws assured Zero.

"This is what happens when we break the rules," May, the chikorita, reminded everyone.

"Then why are you in a rebellion-"Py, the victini cut off Asher.

"Anyway, the point is that you can't leave. Maybe not ever."

Sunny's frown had been growing bigger and bigger.

"You can't keep me here. I'm leaving," she declared, her voice suddenly cold. The victini looked at her warily. The jokester from when they had captured her had vanished.

"You either join our rescue team, or we erase your memory. The erasing has been known to make the receiver forget who they are or cause brain tumors. Believe me, I don't want you here either. But unless you want to risk tumors, you're stuck here," he explained.

The cold look was still in her eyes.

_Is this your doing Arceus? After I went against my fate, was banished from my own clan for freedom, became an outlaw, you're still making me a prisoner? Fine. I will join this rescue team. I will not give up my final fortress: my mind. _

"I'll join your resistance team," Sunny announced, looking less sunny than ever.

"Welcome to Team Seed," Py said sarcastically, shaking her paw.


End file.
